The Lord wishes us to bring a complete revelation of Himself so His people know Him more fully in this life. The Lord reveals His many different aspects to us as we mature. When I was a child, I only understood His goodness, mercy, forgiveness, and loving-kindness. As I journeyed on with Him He revealed His judgment, wrath, and severity. Knowing the Lord in these different aspects actually brings a greater understanding of Christ in us. As we embrace what the Lord reveals about Himself, we journey on with Him and come to know Him in a greater capacity. If we reject aspects of the Lord, then we set a limit to how far we are willing to go in the Lord.
The Lord desires to restore “the fear of the Lord” to His church. He wants His church to have a proper understanding of His severity and His judgments as the great and terrible day of the Lord approaches. He does not want His people to be offended with Him in the coming days. If we get offended with God, we can easily be taken out by the enemy. Satan knows this and has been releasing doctrines through demons to poison the church and make her believe that the Lord no longer judges or releases His judgment. Because many of God’s people believe this lie, they are positioned to be offended with the Lord as His judgments increase in the nations; and as the seals of Revelation Chapter Six are broken open.
Every judgment the Father renders comes from His justice and His love. He flooded the earth because he saw us. He knew that we were in danger and that the bloodline of His Christ must be protected. He moved out of His love for us and the redemption of mankind, when rendering the decision to flood the earth and destroy everyone but eight people. The Lord has not and cannot change, for He is perfect. If He needed to change then He wouldn’t be God. He doesn’t view anything differently after Jesus died on the cross. The Godhead lives outside of time and sees past, present, and future laid out before His eyes. To Him, Jesus had been crucified from the foundation of the world. We cannot view the Lord through “our lens” of time. Time doesn’t and cannot contain Him. Noting does.
The Coming of Jesus
Before Jesus returns to the earth for us, He will be coming through us. His presence will manifest through us in power and love to bring the rest of His harvest into the barn. Along with the coming of His presence will be the coming of His judgment. Jesus Himself opens the scrolls of judgment in Revelation Chapter Six. With the opening of those scrolls, people will die. These events will play out over a series of years or even decades. This is not simply one event or one day of judgment. It is “days” of vengeance before the final day of vengeance in which Jesus will return and set up His Kingdom.
In the days before the literal coming of Jesus, He is coming in judgment and vengeance. Many believers will be offended because Jesus is going to manifest in a way that they don’t know Him, or haven’t desired to know Him. In fact, many believers have rejected the vengeance of God, and have said in their hearts that they only want to know Him as the loving Father. Doctrines of demons and traditions of men have said that vengeance and judgment ended with Jesus’ death on the cross. By this deceptive doctrine, they deny the revealing of Jesus Christ found in the Book of Revelation. This has been the fuel for sin to abound and spread through the church. The following scripture is about to be fulfilled:
“All the sinners among My people will die by the sword, Those who say [defiantly], ‘The disaster will not overtake or confront us.’” (Amos 9:10 AMP)
When this scripture comes to pass, many believers who don’t believe in the vengeance or judgment of God, will be offended by God. These are people who reason with their humanistic reasoning, “God would never allow His people to starve or be killed.” When in fact the scriptures show that the Lord did allow this to happen to His own people who did not repent of sin, and continued in their evil ways. Believers deceive themselves by their human reasoning because they don’t want to fully know the Lord.
Jesus is coming in a way that we do not expect Him to, just as when He came the first time; people we’re offended by the way He came. His own people didn’t receive or recognize Him because He came in a way that they were not desiring. The Rock of offense will manifest again during the days leading up to His second coming.
Vengeance
The Lord will soon pour out His vengeance on all who have rejected Him. Two thousand years ago Jesus stopped short of preaching the day of vengeance (Luke 4:18-20). However we are not in the same time period any longer. Jesus is now sending His messengers to make people ready in multiple ways. He is now saying that we must prepare our hearts for the day of the Lord’s vengeance is at hand.
““The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,” (Isaiah 61:1-2 NKJV)
Two thousand years ago was not time to fulfill part of this prophecy and preach “the day of vengeance of our God.” But now the Holy Spirit is anointing vessels to proclaim this truth. The proclamation of this truth is tied to the proximity of the coming of Jesus. He is coming soon and He wants His people prepared by having an accurate understanding of Him. The day of the Lord’s vengeance cannot be averted, and this portion of scripture must be fulfilled. The Spirit of the Lord will empower messengers to fulfill this scripture regardless of doctrines that contradict it. It is a “package deal” with the surrounding verses. If we desire to see the manifestation of verse one and verse three; then verse two will come to pass as well. The Lord is finished with “pick-and-choose” American Christianity. The Lord did not put this verse in scripture just to make the Bible thicker.
The Wrath of God
“Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the military commanders and the wealthy and the strong and everyone, [whether] slave or free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the [righteous] wrath and indignation of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath and vengeance and retribution has come, and who is able to [face God and] stand [before the wrath of the Lamb]?”” (Revelation 6:15-17 AMP)
It’s interesting that the Lord chooses to refer to Himself as “the Lamb” when He is pouring out His wrath. A lamb is a gentle creature, so one would think that the Lord would refer to Himself as “the Lion” during the days and times of the release of His wrath. Meditate on that. The Lamb of God did not take the wrath of God for the world. The Lamb of God will pour out His wrath on the world.
A number of preachers have said that Jesus took the wrath of God for everyone. But the above scriptures show Jesus releasing wrath and proving the preaching of some to be untrue. The totality of scripture defines the wrath of God as His destructive judgments such as being killed in war, dying by famine, pestilence, and wild animal attacks. Other forms of destruction or “natural disasters” may also be attributed as God’s fierce anger, as well as the scattering of a people group into other nations.
Many believers quote the following scripture as justification that no believers will experience the wrath of God: “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (I Thessalonians 5:9 NKJV)
So God’s perfect will is that all would choose Christ and have salvation, but not all will choose Christ. God appointed all to know Christ, but not all people will keep that appointment. The same is true with wrath. We are not appointed to wrath, but not all believers will choose to keep that appointment. God’s people, Israel, were appointed for blessing. But many chose to trample upon God’s grace and goodness, and lived lives of sin. So the Lord released wrath on His own people. Here are just a few examples of many passages throughout the Bible:
“Then Jeremiah said to them, “Say this to Zedekiah: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Behold, I will turn back and dull the edge of the weapons of war that are in your hands, [those] with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls; and I will bring them into the center of this city (Jerusalem). I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm in anger, in fury, and in great indignation and wrath. I will also strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great virulent disease. Then afterward,” says the Lord, “I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the virulent disease, the sword, and the famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemy, into the hand of those who seek their lives. And he will strike them with the edge of the sword; he will not spare them nor have mercy and compassion on them.” ’” (Jeremiah 21:3-7 AMP)
““Thus says the Lord God, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the center of the nations, and countries are around her. And she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the [pagan] nations and against My statutes more than the countries that are around her; for Israel has rejected My ordinances and has not walked in My statutes.’ Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor kept My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’ therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I, I Myself, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations, I will do among you that which I have not done, and the like of which I will not do again. Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you and I will scatter to all the winds the remnant of you. So, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you and withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare [you]. One third of you will die of virulent disease or be consumed by famine among you; one third will fall by the sword around you; and one third I will scatter to all the winds, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them. ‘Thus My anger will come to an end and I will satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be appeased; then they will know [without any doubt] that I the Lord have spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath on them. (Ezekiel 5:5-13 AMP)
A few New Testament examples of the Lord releasing wrath on His own people would be Acts 5:1-11 and 1 Corinthians 11:29-30. Believers died from the judgment of God, because of their unholy lifestyles.
Just because a believer experiences wrath or judgment does not mean they go to Hell. But the Lord has the right to remove His people from the earth, and bring them to Heaven early. He is King and Judge. Unrepentant sinners in the Lord’s house are not guaranteed protection from the Lord in the days ahead. Believers who are living for themselves and have idols in their hearts, may experience death by starvation, war, or disease in the coming days. The Bible does not teach that believers will be “caught up” to Heaven before they go through tribulation.
Martyrdom
Martyrdom is different from dying by means of God’s wrath. Many believers around the world are currently going through tribulation and being killed for their faith in Christ. The Lord did not rapture them before they faced death. Does the American church believe that she is better than church around the world? Does the American church think that others might have to be martyred, but not her? This is only a deceptive illusion sown by Lucifer to keep many believers in a state of being unprepared.
Tribulation and persecution are ultimate tests of our faith. If we really love Jesus as our Lord and Friend, we will die for Him if the situation arises. This is a good thing to be proven in, and carries a tremendous eternal reward. Those who don’t really love Jesus will deny Him to save their own earthly lives. Jesus will test us on this issue, just as He tested saints in past centuries. We are not better than our brothers and sisters that went before us. We must be tested as they were.
Beating the Bride?
I have had a number of people comment and say the Lord would not beat His bride when referring to the Lord allowing believers to die during the tribulation. First of all, not all believers are the bride. Those who want to become the bride must make themselves ready. All believers are invited to become the bride, but not all are chosen (Revelation 19:7-9). The Lord’s bride will not experience wrath like unrepentant sinning believers. The Lord’s bride is His disciples who will willingly give their lives for their Master Jesus. Paul, Peter and many others made Jesus their first love and gave their lives for Him. The true bride is not worried about her earthly life. She has her eyes fixed on Jesus, and accepts His will for her.
Peace or Vengeance?
Israel is an example to us for how the Lord judges a nation who starts off serving God, and then turns away from Him. A nation that uses drugs, is violent, practices gross sexual immorality, kills babies in the womb, practices sorcery, and is exalted in pride; is a nation that has fallen away from the Lord. America has fallen further and further away over the last 60 years without signs of repentance. The day of the Lord’s vengeance is at hand for America, and the nations. Obviously we don’t desire His vengeance, but our unrepentant actions will bring it upon us.
The Lord has given the nations around two-thousand years to repent since the sacrifice of His Son. The majority of the nations have not turned to Christ, although the Gospel has been widely available. The cup of the Lord’s wrath is almost full, because of unrepentant sin in the nations. Revelation Chapter Six is the beginning of the final judgments upon the nations. That day is at hand. War, famine, and pestilence will soon come to full measure on a world-wide scale. Some nations will experience worse effects than others, but all nations will suffer or partake in some way depending on their degree of guilt.
Many in the modern prophetic movement are declaring America and other nations are on the verge of revival and reformation instead of judgment. They reject the Lord as the righteous Judge, and speak against His vengeance. But the Lord’s vengeance will not be displaced by prophets who have not stood in the council of the Lord. Isaiah was a prophet who stood in the council of the Lord and gave the true word of God.
“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”” (Isaiah 6:8-13 NKJV)
I have heard a well known minister from Northern California say something to the effect, “When you are in the presence of God, you can’t help but volunteer and tell the Lord you will do whatever He asks like Isaiah.” But look at what the Lord asks Isaiah to do. Isaiah doesn’t get to proclaim revival and reformation, or give a positive uplifting message. Isaiah is commanded to tell God’s people, “Keep on hearing but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.” Isaiah is commanded to proclaim this until the Lord’s wrath comes upon the land leaving cities laid waste and without inhabitant. Many think they will do whatever the Lord asks, but then when it comes down to the reality of proclaiming the word of the Lord; their own false belief systems hinder them from even hearing the word of the Lord, let alone proclaiming it. These are the ministers that stand in the council of their own humanistic interpretation of God and His word, and speak forth their humanistic revelation that passes as the wisdom of God to many deceived believers. It passes as the wisdom of God to so many believers, because they do not truly know the Lord. They only know the Lord in a limited capacity.
Jesus repeated Isaiah 6:8-13 in His earthly ministry. He spoke in parables so that most of God’s people at the time (the Jews) would not see and understand the truth, so that they would repent in order to be healed and saved (Matthew 13:10-15, Mark 4:11-12). This is an example of the wrath and vengeance of God being released through Isaiah and Jesus. Jesus actually veiled true so people wouldn’t understand it, as a form of judgment. Only a remnant of people believed Jesus and were saved during His earthly ministry. This is something that many believers fail to accept because it stresses their relationship with God, and threatens their image of the loving Father that the Lord is. Believers who only want to know God in a limited way, choose to ignore certain scriptures that make them question God’s goodness. The proper response is to accept God for who He is by trusting Him, and to come to know and love Him (even for who He is as Judge).
Just as the majority did not understand or perceive during the times of Isaiah or Jesus, so will it be in our day. Jesus prophesied that only a few would find the path to eternal life, and Jesus will not be shown to be a false prophet. The Lord’s vengeance is coming on the ungodly, and on those believers who trample the grace of God underfoot (Hebrews 10:26-31). The Lord is not going to protect believers who are not committed to following Him. This is a warning and an encouragement to follow the Lord. Many believers will be offended when they see the vengeance of the Lord falling upon the nations, and fellow believers they know being swept away in tragedy. Remember Lot’s wife.
The Lord will protect those believers who are intimately pursuing Him as followers. Some of the Lord’s disciples are chosen by the Lord to be martyrs, as Stephen and James were. True disciples accept the call to be martyrs and it is a joy for them to lay down their lives for their Master and Friend. We must commit our lives to the Master and His will, and embrace the path He chooses for each of us. There is peace and comfort in His will. Whether we are martyred or protected and caught up to meet the Lord in the air at His second coming, it is to gain Christ.
Standing in the Gap
Abraham stood in the gap and prayed for the vengeance and wrath of God to be averted in Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham’s intercession was not successful because of the lack of righteous people in those cities. This reveals to us that it’s about believers living right, and not necessarily intercession that averts judgment (although we see in Amos Chapter 7 that intercession can sometimes delay judgment). Let’s take a look at the verse always quoted with regard to “standing in the gap” and prayer. However, let’s examine it in the Septuagint translation which was quoted often by Jesus and the apostles (since Greek was widely spoken in Israel during that time period).
And I sought from among them a man behaving uprightly, and standing before me perfectly in the time of wrath, so that I should not utterly destroy her: but I found him not. So I have poured out my wrath upon her in the fury of mine anger, to accomplish it. I have recompensed their ways on their own heads, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 22:30-31 Brenton LXX)
This version changes the translation from “standing in the gap” to “standing perfectly before me.” We can see that righteous living before the Lord is what He requires to avert His wrath. Various cities and regions will be protected in the coming days from the Lord’s vengeance. The Lord has been establishing men and women behaving uprightly in certain locations so he can shelter them when He pours out His vengeance upon the world. It is important for disciples of Jesus to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying in regards to moving to these locations that will be protected from wrath.
Believers who are called to live in cities or regions where wrath is certain to be poured out, may save their own lives by their righteous living; but will not be able to save the city or region from vengeance. The Lord May deliver this category of believer, just as He delivered Lot from Sodom. However, in what is coming with the opening of the seals in Revelation Chapter Six, a believer living righteously will not be able to deliver others through intercession or his/her righteousness:
“Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My wrath upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast, Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would but deliver their own lives by their righteousness (their moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation).” (Ezekiel 14:19-20 AMPC)
Protection of the Righteous
The Lord is consistent throughout His word. He reveals who He is and how He judges. His vengeance will come upon the world and the sinners of His people. Those who allow Christ in them to come forth in righteousness, will be marked and protected in the coming days of the Lord’s vengeance:
“Then [in my vision] I heard Him cry out with a thunderous voice, saying, “Approach now, executioners of the city, each with his weapon of destruction in his hand.” Behold, six men [angelic beings] came from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with his battle-axe in his hand; and among them was a certain man clothed in linen, with a scribe’s writing case at his side. They entered and stood beside the bronze altar. Then the [Shekinah] glory and brilliance of the God of Israel (the cloud) went up from the cherubim on which it had rested, to [stand above] the threshold of the [Lord’s] temple. And the Lord called to the man clothed with linen, who had the scribe’s writing case at his side. The Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, throughout all of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh [in distress] and grieve over all the repulsive acts which are being committed in it.” But to the others I heard Him say, “Follow him [the man with the scribe’s writing case] throughout the city and strike; do not let your eyes have pity and do not spare [anyone]. Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women; but do not touch or go near anyone on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple [who did not have the Lord’s mark on their foreheads]. And He said to the executioners, “Defile the temple and fill its courtyards with the dead. Go out!” So they went out and struck down the people in the city. As they were executing them and I alone was left, I fell face downward and cried out, “Alas, Lord God! Will You destroy all that is left of Israel [the whole remnant] by pouring out Your wrath and indignation on Jerusalem?” Then He said to me, “The wickedness (guilt) of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of blood and the city is full of perversion and injustice; for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land; the Lord does not see [what we are doing].’ But as for Me, My eye will have no pity, nor will I spare, but I will bring their [wicked] conduct upon their [own] heads.” Then behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the scribe’s writing case at his side, reported, “I have done just as You have commanded me.”” (Ezekiel 9:1-11 AMP)
Agreement
When the vengeance of the Lord is being poured out upon the people of the earth, the saints in Heaven will be agreeing with the righteous judgment of the great King. It would do us good to understand that His decisions are just and righteous. We should follow suit with our brethren in Heaven and agree with the vengeance of God. We don’t enjoy or want eternal death for anyone. But when the King says that it’s time, then it is time. We kneel down before His throne as the Lamb breaks the seal and opens the scroll. The time is upon us. His vengeance is coming.
“And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous and just are You, Who are and Who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they have poured out the blood of the saints (God’s people) and the prophets, and You [in turn] have given them blood to drink. They deserve Your judgment.” And I heard [another from] the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty [the Omnipotent, the Ruler of all], Your judgments are true and fair and righteous.”” (Revelation 16:5-7 AMP)
- Ty Unruh (2022)
